Islanders Prospect Mark Katic

By Adam Cohen

A third round draft pick in 2007, Katic is your prototypical offensive-defenseman. The draft ranking services all noted his excellent skating ability, on-ice vision and hockey sense. One service even went as far to say, "Katic simply possesses the best skating stride in the entire draft." Amassing 159 points in 227 games with Sarnia, Katic is an offensive threat every time he steps onto the ice. However, one weakness in his game is that he sometimes tries to do too much offensively and can get caught in a bad position. His skating ability helps out here, but still leaves him vulnerable to advancing forwards in transition.

After watching Katic through two summer camp seasons, I agree with the draft reports that were written in 2007. Katic's skating rivals no other defensive prospect the Islanders have currently. His ability to transition his stride is smooth and effective; this allows him to change directions without losing much speed. During scrimmages, he is often leading the attack and did get caught on occasion, but his skating almost always enabled him to get back into position. The question still remains, will the faster, more agile players in the NHL limit Katic's offensive chances due to the fact that he will have to play more positional, or will his speed and skating be good enough to allow him to use his full range of abilities?

Below you'll find a brief interview I did with Katic at last season's rookie camp.

How have the practices gone for you this week?

Katic: "Because of the new coach, I am a little nervous. The practices have been fast, and it's been fun so far."

What are your first impressions of Scott Gordon?

Katic: "He's teaching us a lot of things that we can bring back to our Junior clubs."

One of things that have impressed me about your game is that you are always scanning the ice when you are defending against advancing forwards, more so than any other defenseman I have watched in camp. Can you tell me a little about that?

Katic: "You have to see where the other players are, so if you intercept the pass you know where to put the puck right away. So I try to read the ice and see what everyone else is doing."

Away from the rink, what was your favorite thing that you had a chance to experience while at camp?

Katic: "Probably paintball because I had never done that before. It was fun to be able to shoot the guys on the other team."

Based on comments from some fans in Sarnia, they felt that your coach was not allowing you to jump into the play as much as they thought he should have. Do you agree with their assessment, or is there more to it than they knew?

Katic: "I don't think that was the case at all. My coach was trying to teach me the pro game which is make the pass then jump into the play. It took me a little longer to adjust to that. He says that is how the pros do it; they make the [first] pass and then jump into the hole. He was trying to teach me how to do that, and I thought he taught me very well. I am trying to that a little more now."

In the Junior leagues is the emphasis more on developing players for the pros, or is more on winning?

Katic: "For the younger players, the emphasis is on development, but the older players there want to win. It's a business, and all the players I know want to win. I want to win. There is development, but at the same time we all want to win."

Last season Katic had Brendan Witt for a roommate. He said, "It was a little nerve wracking at first, but once you realize he's a human being just like everybody else, it's a lot easier and a lot of fun to ask him questions about things."